Ralph Fisher (1746–1803) was an English

slave trader The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions o ...

based in Liverpool who was responsible for over 100 slave voyages. He is said to have been the seventh-biggest slave trader in Liverpool.

Slave trade

Ralph Fisher was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and operated out of the

Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of ...

. In 1790, Fisher owned five slave ships and by the weight of those ships he was the seventh-largest slave trader in Liverpool. Fisher employed Richard Kendall, one of Liverpool's leading slave-ship captains between 1783 and 1798. Kendall worked aboard Fisher's ships ''Brothers'', ''Matty and Betty'' and ''Fisher'' (built in 1786). Kendall's first command was aboard ''Brothers''. Richard Kendall met a Miss Dobson later in his life, they became acquaintances and she recorded her conversations with him. She described one event that involved his 16-year-old son John Kendall. Father and son left Liverpool on board ''Brothers'' bound for

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

on a slave voyage. John Kendall angered his father, who threw him into the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

as the ship passed Perch Rock. The ship sailed on and it was not until its return, a year later, that Richard Kendall discovered his son was still alive. She wrote, "Captain Kendall was a specimen of what the frightful traffic in human creatures can make a man, but it left him the virtues of uprightness and truthfulness. Tho', I believe, had needs been, he would have cared little for taking the life of a man". Fisher re-employed Richard Kendall upon his return to Liverpool and later Kendall moved from being a captain to become a slave trader himself. John Kendall also became a slave ship Captain, Fisher gave him his very first command, on a slave ship called ''Swift''. Later John Kendall became the captain of his father's slave ship . Richard Kendall retired to Caton in Lancashire and lived until he was 80 years old, John Kendall died on a slave voyage in 1804 while on board ''William'' in West Africa. Fisher was known to buy African enslaved people with

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

. In 1792, unusually, two of Fisher's ships ''Echo'' and ''Philip Steven'' returned to Liverpool without a cargo. ''Echo'' had been away from port for 364 days and ''Philip Steven'' for 612 days. Drake writes that it is likely these ships were contracted by other slaver traders to travel the coast of West Africa buying enslaved people which were then transferred onto another slave ship for onward travel to the West Indies.

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Slave trade

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